Mr 6-canals came by today. I know that in
medicine they try not to refer to patients by their
disease, but it is honestly the best descriptor when trying to tell a story. And besides it does not break
patient confidentiality when talking amongst colleagues.
Back to Mr 6-canals. He had just been endowed with the status of a minor celebrity when the specialist endodontist found 6 root canals in his lower first molar tooth. Usually there are only 3 canals and occasionally 4 ^&#*#^%%$ canals. The endodontist wrote back to me that he had never heard of a case of 6 canals and was going to publish this case in the some Journal of Endodontics. Gee - as the referring dentist, I felt good!
The specialist took lots of photos and radiographs, and I'm sure several of his colleagues also popped in to "have a look" - just as several of my colleagues did. He returned to me to have the definitive coronal restoration placed on the tooth (after root canal treatment).
Though the patient did complain that he spent a lot of money on just this one tooth ($1900 was the specialist fee) and wasn't given a discount on the account of his special case. Oh well. I guess I would've done it for almost nothing if I really did find the 6 canals myself…